HSP3U online provides students with opportunities to think critically about theories, questions, and issues related to anthropology, psychology, and sociology. Through HSP3U, students will gain a critical perspective on social theories, questions, and issues that shape our world. Students in HSP3U will develop an understanding of the approaches and research methods used by social scientists. In HSP3U online, students will be given opportunities to explore theories from a variety of perspectives, to conduct social science, and to become familiar with current thinking on a range of issues within the three disciplines.
Course curriculum
Inside %course-code%: three ways of asking why people do what they do
The gateway to Grade 12 social sciences
HSP3U is the Grade 11 course most students take before HSB4U, HHS4U and other Grade 12 social science credits, and it counts toward the Group 1 compulsory credit.
Three disciplines, one method
Anthropology, psychology and sociology each get a 30-hour unit, and the social science inquiry method, from research question to APA citation, runs through all of them.
Real studies, real ethics
Mary Ainsworth’s attachment research, the Clark doll experiment and other classic studies, examined for what they found and whether they should have been run.
Analyse culture on screen
A television character read through psychological theories mid-course, and a film analysed through all three disciplines as the final task, worth 10% alongside a 15% exam.
HSP3U Course outline
Full unit-by-unit breakdown.
Ask who we are and why we do what we do. Meet the three disciplines and the critical questions each asks, separate common-sense myths about human behaviour from evidence, and learn the social science inquiry method, research question design and APA citation.
Key topics
The three social sciences · myths versus evidence · social science inquiry method · research questions · research methods · APA citation
Assessed by
Unit 1 test (5%) · social science research essay (10%)
Study the fields of anthropology and its major schools of thought, theories and influential figures, from human evolution and biological anthropology to living cultures, and learn how anthropologists formulate research questions and record observations.
Key topics
Fields of anthropology · human evolution · cultural anthropology · schools of thought and theorists · ethnographic research methods · socialization
Assessed by
Anthropology infographic (3%) · cultural investigation photo essay (5%) · end-of-unit paragraph response (5%) · unit test (5%)
Examine the major schools of thought and approaches to understanding behaviour and mental processes, from psychoanalytic to cognitive and behavioural perspectives, study types of psychological research and their ethics, and apply the theories to a character from a television show.
Key topics
Schools of thought in psychology · psychological theories and perspectives · research methods · ethics in experiments · mental health · socialization
Assessed by
Psychology test (5%) · ethics in psychological experiments (3%) · television character analysis (8%)
Study social behaviour, groups and society: how sociologists explain why certain behaviours exist and how societies function, socialization, alienation and other core concepts, and how sociological research begins.
Key topics
Society and social institutions · sociological theories and perspectives · socialization · alienation · group behaviour · sociological research
Assessed by
Alienation assignment (7%) · sociology unit test (9%)
Consolidate the course by analysing an approved film through the lenses of anthropology, psychology and sociology in a cumulative essay or report, then write the proctored final exam.
Key topics
Multi-perspective film analysis · consolidating the three disciplines
Assessed by
Final task: film analysis (10%)
